What is Costa Rica's actual position in the world in terms of environmental quality? Is it in fifth place as established two years ago by Yale University, or 54th as it has now been assigned by the same "scholars" ?
EDITORIAL
A country can not in two years jump from 5th place to 54th place in the world in terms of environmental quality, as happened to Costa Rica according to the Environmental Performance Index from Yale University.
In terms of how modern the infrastructure for air transport is, Panama leads the field, followed distantly by Costa Rica.
"None of the airports in Central America comes close to knocking Tocumen off its number one position in the ranking by Skytrax, nor the ranking by the World Economic Forum. The latter measures the quality of infrastructure for air travel in the country , where Panama climbed from 38th place in 2007 to last year reach the prestigious position of sixth place," reported Elsalvador.com.
The region received a combined total of $8.876 billion in FDI in 2012, representing an increase of 7% compared to 2011.
Panama remained the largest recipient of foreign investment, with $3.020 billion, followed by Costa Rica with $2.265 billion, Guatemala ($1.207 billion), Honduras ($1.059 billion), Nicaragua ($810 million) and finally El Salvador with $516 million.
Leading Latin America, the ports of Colon and Balboa have the largest volume of containers moved, with Santos of Brazil in third place.
Of the 20 major ports in Latin America, Colon (MIT, Evergreen and Cristóbal) was placed first with 3.3 million TEUs or 20 foot long containers mobilized in 2011, followed by Balboa with 3.2 million and Santos (Brazil) 2.9 million, reported Prensa.com.
Out of all the countries on the isthmus, only Panama’s Human Development Index follows the upward trend set by Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since the 1990 publication of the Human Development Index (HDI), the number has shown an upward trend for the vast majority of nations. This overall positive trend has been exceeded by some countries, such as South Korea and China, while others, such as Zimbabwe and Lesotho, have actually moved in a negative direction.
According to the UN Development Program (UNDP) index, within Central America Panama comes first at no. 58 followed by Costa Rica (69), El Salvador (105), Honduras (121), Nicaragua (129) and Guatemala at no. 131.
While Panama's ranking has moved up one spot since the last time the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) was published, Costa Rica and Honduras have slipped back a place.
The problem is how to make the measurements objective and how to measure without succumbing to the pressure generated by the expectation of inclusion in the rankings of companies with the best working environments.
The Great Place to Work Institute has managed to convince companies that a good working environment is beneficial and brings good results and because of this many are working seriously to improve theirs.
Panama is ranked number 7 in the list of the 48 most attractive cities for investment in Latin America.
San Jose, Costa Rica is ranked 23rd, Guatemala City is 37th, Tegucigalpa is 41st, Managua is 43rd, San Salvador is 44th, and San Pedro Sula is 46th.
This is the second edition of the ranking of the most attractive cities in Latin America for investment, which is a product of joint work by the Center for Competitive Thinking Strategies (CEPEC) at the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia and the Chilean firm Business Intelligence (IdN). It identifies the cities in the Latin American region which bring together the best conditions for investment.
Panama is the only Central American country participating in the International Student Assessment (PISA).
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is to measure if students near the end of mandatory education have acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to fully participate in society. PISA highlights those countries which have achieved good performance and at the same time, an equitable distribution of learning opportunities, helping in setting ambitious goals for other countries.
No Central American country comes to "green" in the Corruption Index 2010, representing serious problems for businesses.
Costa Rica is the best positioned country in the Central American Index 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, reports produced by Transparency International. With an index of 5.3, Costa Rica is ranked 41 in a list of 176 countries, led by Denmark and New Zealand as nations where there is less corruption in government, and Myanmar and Somalia at the end of the list as most corrupt.
The MBA 2010 Rankings from AméricaEconomía highlight improvements in the quality of teaching and academic research.
Some of the aspects considered by the business, finance and economic analysis portal are:
- Effects of the financial crisis on Business Schools
- Competition for academic staff with a PhD or MSc
- Knowledge creation and sharing
- Dean profiles
The rankings industry continues outputting information that many times is not only inaccurate, but also disguised advertising.
An article in BNet begins by reporting that a well known multinational corporation was found guilty and ordered to pay $250 million for gender discrimination and firing pregnant women.
Perhaps not surprisingly, this same company had been included in the list “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers”.
A recipe that mixes statistical data, reasoned argumentation and good intentions, ends in an absurd list of more or less pacific countries.
The industry of producing Indexes and Rankings, which at times provides useful information for business decision making, turns out real absurdities more often than not.
The Global Peace Index (GPI), developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit and the Institute for Economics and Peace, is a good example of this. It is based on the questionable premise that peace has a monetary value, as an economy can reach its maximum productive capacity under states of peace. It mixes, relates and weights statistical data provided by various international agencies to produce a figure that measures – according to its authors – how peaceful is each of these nations when compared to others. Its creators allege the number must be used to conduct strategic business analysis (“Using the Global Peace Index for Strategic Business Analysis”).
Panama's Colón and Balboa are first in Central America (2 and 3 in Latin America), followed by Limón in Costa Rica (13), Cortés in Honduras (22), Santo Tomás (29), Puerto Barrios (31) and Quetzal (36) in Guatemala.
The economic crisis in the region last year reduced port activity in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a recent ranking prepared by ECLAC.